The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office formally provided Flock Safety, the company that manufactures and operates hardware and artificial intelligence-powered software for automated license plate readers (ALPRs), with a notice of material breach and intent to terminate their agreement with the company on Oct. 8, 2026.

Major Adam Carnal, public information officer for the Crawford County Sheriff’ Office, said that officials with the Sheriff’s Office and Crawford County have been assessing their agreement with Flock Safety for several weeks following what he described as “customer service issues” regarding delayed product installations and lengthy response times for service issues.

Carnal said the Sheriff’s Office has been experiencing customer service issues since July 2026.

The Sheriff’s Office ultimately decided to provide a formal notice of intent to terminate their agreement with Flock Safety, which operates seven ALPRs in Crawford County.

“Over the past several weeks, Crawford County has been evaluating its relationship with Flock Safety, and there has been some uncertainty regarding whether we would continue utilizing their services,” Carnal said, adding that “at this time, the County is involved in a contractual dispute with Flock Safety regarding concerns with the company’s performance and fulfillment of its contractual obligations. As a result, we have formally provided notice of material breach and our intent to terminate the agreement.”

According to Carnal, Flock Safety has 30 days to remedy the customer service issue, during which the ALPR’s operated by the company will remain active. Once the 30-day period ends, ALPRs operated by Flock Safety will be taken offline if the customer service issue is not resolved.

Flock Safety is one of many companies that manufacture and service ALPRs. If a solution cannot be reached with Flock Safety, the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office could enter into an agreement with another provider.

While the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office is attempting to terminate its agreement with Flock Safety, Carnal said that the agency is supportive of ALPR technology as a legitimate law enforcement tool.

“We believe LPR technology is a valuable investigative tool that provides significant benefits to law enforcement and public safety,” Carnal said. “Our concerns are specific to our contractual relationship with Flock Safety rather than the technology itself.”

The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office dispute with Flock Safety comes at a time of heightened scrutiny surrounding ALPRs.

Last month, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed an executive order that established new guidelines for how state agencies and state-funded law enforcement departments can use ALPRs.

The executive order requires that most license plate and vehicle data be deleted within 30 days, prohibits vendors from selling, sharing or commercializing Missouri-generated data, restricts ALPR use to only legitimate criminal justice and lifesaving purposes, establishes oversight and accountability measures that aim to penalize the misuse of ALPRs and prohibits the use of artificial intelligence facial recognition technology being used alongside ALPRs.

“The government should not be building a permanent record of where law-abiding Missourians go, who they visit, or how they live their daily lives,” Kehoe said. “This executive order is the first step in creating safeguards against abuse of this data, while still understanding the benefits of these vital public safety tools for law enforcement.”

Kehoe’s executive order is part of a national conversation about warrantless surveillance, law enforcement accountability, the use of AI in crime fighting and citizens’ right to privacy–a conversation that is also taking shape in Missouri.

Some have argued that the methods through which Flock Safety stores data violate the Missouri Sunshine Law.

Missouri Press Association Legal Hotline Attorney Dan Curry has argued that footage and data from ALPRs are public records and that Missouri’s Sunshine Law prohibits government agencies from entering into contracts to store public records in electronic databases if those arrangements make the records more difficult for the public to inspect or copy, raising questions about whether the way Flock Safety stores surveillance data could violate the law.

“Missouri law does not permit a public body to claim it has not retained a public record because it was stored in a third-party electronic database,” Curry said. “The Sunshine Law actually includes “records created or maintained by private contractors under an agreement with a public government body” in its definition of ‘public record.’”

The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office operates an ALPR Transparency Portal on its website. The portal provides regularly updated data about the number of unique vehicles detected by Flock cameras and the number of database searches conducted by law enforcement. The portal also shows the number of “hotlist hits” picked up by Flock cameras, meaning the number of vehicles identified that were considered vehicles of interest, stolen or wanted, or associated with unlawful activity.

Carnal said that the purpose of the transparency portal is to be upfront with Crawford County residents about how and when ALPR technology is used.

“We’re not trying to do anything that we want to conceal from the public. So you’re more than welcome to ask questions and see what we’re using it for,” Carnal said. “We believe it to be a good technology when used appropriately.”

According to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office’s ALPR Transparency Portal, the agency uses both mobile vehicle-mounted technology and fixed, street-side cameras made by Flock Safety. The page also says that the Sheriff’s office uses Flock camera technology as “an investigative tool,” and not as a means of continuous surveillance of law-abiding citizens.

As of publication, In the last 30 days the seven Flock cameras in use in Crawford County identified more than 360,000 unique vehicles. Law enforcement officers conducted 21 searches of data collected from Flock camera footage. A total of 404 vehicles appeared on the “hot list,” meaning their license plate numbers were associated with potentially unlawful activity.